Fan

My late grandfather, Ludwig, had a wood-working shop in the basement of his house.  Grandpa and Grandma were the dynamic-duo when it came to crafting.  He would cut the wood piece, and she would paint it.  I have a Christmas ornament, hand made by them, for almost every year of my life!

A young Ludwig, with an even younger Megan and brother Travis

In this wood working shop stood a Montgomery Ward fan.  I spotted it while admiring his dusty little shop a couple of months ago, and asked Grandma if I could have it.  Of course she said yes. I didn't take a before picture (silly) but imagine a little metal fan, covered about 1/4" thick in sawdust, and odd wires sticking out in places that looked too unsafe to be real.

I decided I was going to pull it apart and paint it. I had never thought that I would get it running again. I realized that I had no idea how to get it apart and I needed my brothers help.  As soon as he had it apart he said he could have it running again.  So we ran to town, bought the stuff to re-wire it and some spray paint. And a couple weeks later she's done! It really only took a couple hours. I just had to give the spray time to dry, etc.

Here she is in pieces. The base

The cage

The back cover

Front Cover

Jason snapped a picture of this for me, it's the magnets that sit inside of the fan.

Everything covered in a coat of primer. I did three coats. I used a car metal primer.

The base in a coat of primer.

The base with one coat of Valspar Tropical Oasis Gloss spray paint

The blades with one coat of paint

Brother helping me with the wiring of the fan.

I paid close attention. Maybe I will be able to do it on my own someday.

Soldering the wires together.

The cover and blades are going on.

She's beautiful!

Making vintage new isn't always easy.  The push button we purchased doesn't fit in the cage of the fan. Oh well. She runs!

Here she is, relaxing in my room.

A close up of the Montgomery Ward symbol.

The motor runs hot after only being on for a couple of minutes.  So, I may never actually use it, but I have the option. And she looks great sitting in the room.

-Megs

December 17th Weekend

On Friday December 16th, Jason arrived home from Georgia. He spent two days driving, from Georgia to Illinois, from Illinois to Minnesota.  It was great to get him home and it's been great to have him here!

Saturday morning Jason and I loaded up the Honda Fit and headed for Fargo.  I had planned to visit my friend Kristi, her husband Adam, and their NEW BABY Griffin! Griffin is a little bundle of joy.  He was born on October 31st, 2011.  When I met him he was roughly a month and a half, about 13 lbs, just learning to smile, and getting pretty good at holding his head up.


It was an experience for me. It has been quite a while since I'd been responsible for a baby quite so small!  I got to change his cloth diapers, bottle feed, and burp him. 

Kristi and Adam attended a company Christmas party and 4 of the prettiest women on the planet got to baby-sit baby Griffin.  Ashley, Anna, Tana, and myself. 

Here is a picture of Ashley feeding Griffin

We Belong Part 2

March 2009
Spring Break in California

Jason and I went to northern California to see a friend, and stay the week for cheap.  We flew in to Sacramento then drove up to Humboldt county in my friends little ford focus.  Winding roads and a manual car can make for a fun drive! I remember our first day there was...interesting. We had left Minneapolis at an early time. We landed in Sacramento around 11am, and decided we did not want to get lunch yet. We then drove around trying to find the boating house that our friend was having her Crew practice at. We arrived there an hour later and they were out on the water. We waited a couple more hours, and by then it was 3 or 4pm in Minnesota. We were STARVING!


Early morning flights make us silly. 



The Ford Focus Megan got to drive



Our campsite the first night in California 



I love camping with this man.



Look at what a studly stud he is.



The long-arm-self-portrait-shot



We stopped on the way for a leg stretch.


After we said our Hey-Hellos to Emily we wandered the streets of Sacramento once again. (This was all Pre-GPS) We found a Sizzler. We thought we had hit the jackpot. Later we found out that it's a pretty common restaurant.  So we probably should not have excitedly taken pictures of our sub par steaks. Ha! Oh well.

We spent the rest of the week hiking in the Redwood National Forest. Which was amazing and beautiful. We even hiked in an area that a scene from Jurassic Park was filmed in. And we saw some hippies smoking in a tree. That was nice.


That kid is 6'4" with his hands down.



Tree Love!



Fern Gully anyone?



This is our Dear Friend Emily.



When we flew out of Sacramento we went to the capital and saw Arnold (said with an accent of course). He wasn't actually there, but we peaked in his office just in case!


We went out for a nice dinner on the bay.



Ooo pretty!



August 2010
Honeymoon in Bar Harbor Maine
We were married on May 22, 2010. It was a beautiful day! We had decided that we wanted to go to Bar Harbor Maine for our honeymoon. We found a little 2 person cabin in the woods and we stayed for a week.  We knew that we wanted to wait for our honeymoon. We did not want to feel rushed after our wedding.  So we planned the trip for August, and it was a wonderful little vacation!

We drove the entire way. Something like 36 hours. We drove the first 24 hours straight through. We landed in upstate New York and stayed at a friends house. Thanks Katie! We spent the next 12 or 20 hours relaxing with Katie and other friends from upstate. We met our good friends husband for the first time and we had a blast! (Thanks Ryan and Kasey for being so cool!) We are excited to be a teeny-tiny bit closer to that couple.

We drove the rest of the way and had a great week. We hiked acadia national park, we kayaked in the ocean, we pretended to not be so out of shape that biking was killing us, and we acted like the tourists that we were!



Buoys decorate everything out there



Bar Harbor

The Newlyweds!

Look at that cute smile.

We made it to the top!



It was so beautiful



Goofing around

He's falling in!

To be continued...
-Megs

Our Christmas Plans

Friday 12/23: Relax at home with Megan's parents and siblings. We will be stuffing our faces with Enchiladas, yummy taco dip, and Margaritas! Yippee!!

Saturday 12/24: We have a Christmas party at Jason's brothers house at 11am. We are excited to see family! Even some out-of-state relatives will be there to celebrate with us. After lunch with the fam we are going to downtown Minneapolis to celebrate our family Christmas. Just me and Jason!

Sunday 12/25: We are waking up in our plush hotel room and then heading over to Jason's grandparents house in Paynesville, Mn.

Megan has Monday 12/26 off and I'm not sure what we are going to do that day. Megan would love to stay home and work on some of her craft projects!

Friday 12/30: Christmas with Jason's parents in Jordan, Mn!

We Belong Part 1

Jason and I have been traveling together for almost five years.
I wanted to give a recap on the vacations and trips we have been on together.

March 2007
Barely a month in to our relationship we road-tripped to the Grand Canyon with my brother Travis, and Jason's brother Josh.  We loaded up the suburban with camping gear, packed the goober, and hit the road. Have you ever had goober? How bizarre, and incredibly convenient. Our first stop was Denver Colorado.  We had a great time walking around and finding random things to do in the city.


Sittin pretty in Denver




Walking Tall



The boys were swept away by Denver



I'm a statue and Travis is not interested



Showing off his muscles



The babes were always hitting on Joshua



Being silly on Denver art



And just because...


We drove through the night to the Grand Canyon. A very angry and frustrated Travis put the tent up in almost pitch-blackness. A couple of sad flashlights helped with the tenting frustration. The tent is a big 7 person tent, with poles, and screens, and do-hickeys I could only dream about. It's my parents, and after that experience I went out and bought a simple "4 person" (sleeps 2 comfortably, 4 would be sleeping on top of each other) tent at a garage sale. I have never looked back. We loved being in the canyon, we spent a day just hiking 12 miles round trip.  We grilled all of our meals, and payed the $1.75 for a 3 minute shower. It was a dream!


This was SERIOUSLY how the pizza came out of the wrapper. Then we grilled it over a fire.



Stocking up on sodium and water.



Josh the master rock-climber



The canyon.



Jason and Joshua



Relaxing on the hike back up





Group Shot!


While sitting around the fire one afternoon we were looking at the map and decided that Las Vegas was too close to pass up. We dialed my father, Randy, and he booked us a hotel room. We spent one day in Vegas and then drove straight back to Minnesota. It was a great trip. If I could change one thing, it would have been my maturity level. I was way too selfish of my time with Jason and it's probably part of the reason his brother Josh had a bad taste in his mouth about me.


We stayed at the Sahara



Vegas Baby!



Fall 2007
Jason and I went to my parents cabin for a weekend. We road-tripped it up to Duluth and did all of the sightseeing you can do there. Great weekend!


Getting the fire started for us

 


How pretty is this? We just might miss Minnesota and gooseberry falls.

 


Look at that face. This might have been the exact moment I fell head-over-heels for this kid.



I was there.



Our Converse Feet



At the Lighthouse. A nice picture of me eating my hair.



Split rock Lighthouse



Fun with sparklers



LOVE



Who do I look like? Lady Liberty??





The rents cabin

 To be Continued.
-Megs